After spending 3 nights in Vietnam, we booked a bus ticket to Phnom Pehn, the capital of Cambodia. The 6 hour air-conditioned bus ride cost us $10 each. As in Vietnam, US Dollars are accepted everywhere in Cambodia and are actually the preferred currency. When we arrived a group of tuk tuk drivers (motorbikes pulling a small carriage on the back) immediately started harassing us to buy a ride to our hotel from them. We decided to go with the driver who spoke the best English which ended up costing a lot more in the end. He took us to his friends hotel where I'm sure they over charged us by $5 (which is a weeks wage in this country for some people). He convinced us to go ahead and book our bus out of the city at the hotel which was $3 more expensive than booking through one of the many travel agents. We learned our lesson and won't be too friendly with any of the "helpful" tuk tuk drivers in our next city. We found that in the end, they are just trying to scam you (albeit only for 2-4$ each time). We visited the Killing fields which is where tens of thousands of Cambodian's who where resisting or thought to be resisting the Pol Pot regime where brutally murdered and buried. It was a very sobering experience and afterwards we decided not to visit the other tourist attraction in town, the torture prison. Our hotel was right next to the kings palace which was an interesting place. I took several good pictures there which I will upload later. The city tourist area had been very westernised. Many bars and restaurants are serving american and european dishes. Food was much more expensive in Cambodia (around $5 for a meal) than in Vietnam (around $2 per meal). Our last after noon in Phnom Penh we spent with a travel agent as we planned out some of the next stages of our trip. She was very friendly and we ended up staying and talking with her for a while after booking our flight out of Cambodia. She gave us great tips on how much things should cost and what things to avoid. We also learned that she earns around $500 a month and that she works 7 days a week, 12 hours a day. After spending one day in Phnom Penh, we boarded the bus to head toward Siem Riep which is home to the Angkor Wat temples.
Angkor Wat (Siem Reap)
We met a nice guy from the UK who told us we could probably see all the temples in the Angkor wat area in around 4 hours. People normally spend around 3-4 days walking the temples, we were going to spend 1. It took us around 6 hours to get through all the temples in the 100+ degree heat (with no sunscreen). The last temple is the most popular since it was in the movie Tomb Raider and it has a tree growing on top of the temple. Most of the temples are around 1000 years old and there are almost no rules when touring them. There are very few "Do not enter" signs and for most of the temples, you can literally climb where ever you want. We took lots of good photos which I will upload once I get to a better computer. After cooling off in the pool ($25 for a hotel with a pool, satellite TV and air-conditioning), we walked down to the aptly named "Pub Street" for a few $0.50 local Angkor beers. There were quite a few old western men walking around the city (super creepy) which we immediately assume were in search of a local woman or a small child. Cambodia is known to be one of the favorite spots to visit for western Pedophiles. Our waitress at the restaurant was very funny and friendly and she wrote down several English to Cambodian word translations so we could learn some Cambodian. Morgan and I decided to take a break from drinking and get a $6 1 hour massage, terrible decision. This was the most painful massage I have ever received and my masseuse did not speak very good English so it was difficult to tell her when she was hurting me other than screaming. Today we fly to Hanoi where it will hopefully be a few degrees cooler.
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